I had never heard or heard of "Santa Lucia" as a German song until coming across it in
Die Seemannskiste Volume 2 whilst looking for some German sea songs for Ernst Richter. The lyrics are pretty weak but the melody is just great for accordion (Ernst's instrument) and concertina. The lyrics are much too poetical! Dear surfer, can you imagine a German seaman singing
"Hell glänzt das Mondeslicht am Himmelsbogen" roughly translated as "The moonlight gleams bright on heaven's arc". Not even Joseph Conrad would have penned such rubbish.